HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE IMAGING

High Dynamic Range (HDR) is a term used when speaking of images and image processing. In simple terms, it makes images look like they would if viewed through 3D glasses. The film industry uses HDR to create special effects. An HDR image has noticeable differences between the detail in the brightest or lightest area, and the detail in the shadow or darkest area. When Adobe incorporated the HDR capability into their flagship product, Photoshop, it opened up new doors for graphic artists, and film and video professionals.

Prior to the HDR feature in Photoshop, the recording capability of a camera limited a photographer's ability to capture, with one shot, the entire range of a scene's brightness details. The HDR Merge feature in Photoshop combines multiple exposure brackets into a single image to create an overall higher range of tonal detail. Photos produced using HDR have amazing detail in all areas of the image regardless of light and darkness, sometimes making them look surreal.

The two main sources of HDR imagery are computer renderings and merging of multiple photographs, the latter of which in turn are individually referred to as low dynamic range (LDR) or standard dynamic range (SDR) photographs.

Tone mapping techniques, which reduce overall contrast to facilitate display of HDR images on devices with lower dynamic range, can be applied to produce images with preserved or exaggerated local contrast for artistic effect.

Below are some examples of HDR found on the internet by un-named photographers...

ANDREW L MOORE

Andrew L. Moore, internationally recognised fine artist working in color large format photography. Portfolios on Russia, Cuba, Detroit, Abu Dhabi, Times Square, New York City, and Bosnia.

His digital prints are crystal clear and seem to vibrate with life against the bright white of the walls, a strange and gorgeous counterpoint to his uninhabited landscapes. And while Moore's images may appeal to the most basic senses with their candy store colors, it isn't an easy viewing experience by any means. There is something about marveling at the unexpected beauty of a city in collapse that doesn't sit well, and it very well shouldn't. However, Moore pushes the exhibition beyond mere documentary, deftly extricating a cohesive message out of his urban muse.

Moore's most arresting photographs are his most visceral. The huge, crumbling interiors that he captures, despite their dilapidation, still somehow glitter like jewels behind his lens. "Palace Theater, Gary Indiana" shows what used to be a plush theater complete with box seats and intricate moldings in complete disrepair. Red velvet cushions litter the ground, sunlight pours in through a hole in the ceiling, and tiny icicles glitter from the second floor. A row of eight tiny chairs is all that remains as it once was, expectantly positioned in the front row, gazing up at a weatherworn backdrop of some faux Mediterranean paradise. "Organ Screen, UA Theater, Detroit Michigan," (2009) so ravaged by time and the elements, looks completely abstracted at first glance. Heavy, ornate architecture looms in every corner of the image, interrupted by occasional splashes of purple, the result of peeling paint. The most poignant of these images, though, is "Dry Dock, Detroit, Michigan" (2009). The only image with any fleeting sign of human life, it depicts the interior of an abandoned industrial building that has found a new, sad life as a squat. A precarious-looking lean-to balances next to shopping carts filled with orange juice cartons, bran flakes, and a pink box of fruit snacks. Socks hang on the sides of the lean-to, drying in the heat of a tiny fire, painful evidence of some sort of domesticity. A make-shift chimney of a plastic sheet draped from the ceiling funnels the smoke out of the building. The sheet is illuminated by the sunlight from above, diaphanous, like some ghostly waterfall; the viewer almost expects a foaming rush of water at the bottom, but it's replaced by a hill of dirty soda bottles instead.

While Moore's architectural photographs are the most striking visually, it is his smaller, arguably more mundane subjects that really communicate. Whether by sheer luck or tireless searching, Moore managed to capture objects that, within their quickly disintegrating environment, have taken on the look of unearthed artifacts from a better time. It is these images that take on an allegorical meaning, taking the exhibition from documentary to commentary. "FBI Range, Detroit, Michigan" (2009) is a photograph of a target left up in an abandoned shooting range. Printed with an image of a man pointing a pistol straight at the viewer, the target is riddled with bullet holes that let the bright red wall behind it shine through the paper, brilliant as blood. Explicit and uncompromising, "FBI Range" is pure menace and difficult to look at. It's here that the viewer finds that Detroit isn't all ruinous beauty, but confrontational as well. "National Time" (2009) though, is the most memorable photograph of the exhibition. Found in a burned-out school building, it is a photograph of a melted clock still hanging on a wall, blooming from petal-like layers of peeling paint. While its bizarre similarity to Salvador Dali's "The Persistence of Memory," is enough to make it worth seeing, what's inscribed on the clock face makes it truly meaningful. The inscription reads "National Time," an incidental and brilliantly concise comment on our current state of affairs.

Moore has captured images that are worth so much more than their undeniable and unexplainable aesthetic appeal. In less skilled hands, his images could have amounted to nothing more than an exercise in insensitivity or even Schadenfreude. Detroit, though, is a brilliantly edited project that is equal parts beauty and responsibility. Moore conveys that a depressed economy and the ravages of time have reduced what were once Detroit's symbols of prosperity into an ominous prophecy for the country's future. He does not simply record, but cautions, and we would be wise to heed that message.

CLAIRE MORGAN

Another great link to the subject of decay was sent to me by Danny - Claire Morgan...

Claire Morgan was born in Belfast. She attended University of Ulster and Northumbria University where she achieved a first class degree in Sculpture. She is now based in London.

Since graduating she has pursued a career solely as a visual artist. She has exhibited internationally, with solo shows, residencies and commissions across the UK, as well as solo and group exhibitions in Europe. At an early stage she developed a strong interest in the organic, in natural processes, and in the bodily connotations of natural materials. This formed the basis for her practice as an artist creating sculptural installations and continues to influence her work at present.

In 2004 Claire was awarded the Royal British Society of Sculptors Annual Bursary and Roy Noakes Awards for Come Fly With Me, a work that involved painstakingly repetitive and precise processes. She has continued to explore this way of working, and the challenges presented by her chosen materials and techniques have become an important part of her practice.

In 2006 she was awarded first prize for Red or Dead in the Premio Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, International Competition for Young Sculptors, Milan, and in 2007 she was selected as one of the Courvoisier Future 500 (top 10 art and design), featured in The Observer.

In 2008, a new body of work entitled Periphery formed a major solo exhibition at the James Hockey and Foyer Galleries, UCA Farnham, and Gone With The Wind, a commission for the Great North Run Cultural Programme exhibited at the Laing Gallery, Newcastle, received great acclaim.

During 2009, Claire exhibited a piece called Fluid made of rotting stawberries at Consumer, Palais de Tokyo, and Striking, her work shown at Fiac also received a great deal of press interest in Paris. Most of 2009 was spent working towards Life. Blood. a major solo exhibition of sculpture and drawing at Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris in January 2010.

Exhibitions currently scheduled for 2010-2011 include a solo show at Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, and group shows at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, the Museum of Old and New Art, Tazmania, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, and the Towner Gallery, Eastbourne.

FIRST ATTEMPT AT LAND ART

During the day spent with Richard Shilling up in Lancaster I took some time to create my first piece of land art. It was really good to begin working with nature and the items around me.

I decided to produce something that depicted life & decay and collected leaves from around me, some fallen from the trees and others hand picked.

I used some thorns that Richard had collected from previous searches to knit together the leaves and then began to wind them around the tree. The line of leaves used depicted life and death through their colour from a vivd green at the base of the tree showing life to a decaying brown to depict death and decay.

This was pinned to the tree again using natural thorns to keep the piece in place. Over the corse of the rest of the day the wind and rain took over the piece by twisting and flipping the leaves giving them a totally different effect.

Below is a snap shot of what was created.

A DAY WITH RICHARD SHILLING

Saturday 7th August I took a trip up to Lancaster to meet up with Land Artists Richard Shilling.

Richard agreed to let me tag along with him on one of his "Art Days" which he does whenever he has spare time, mostly on Saturdays as he works full time during the week as an IT Manager.

The day started off with a visit to Standen Park in Lancaster to collect materials to aid Richard with his art. As we walked through the Park Richard explained that up until early 2002 when he moved up to Lancaster from Kent he had never dreamed of doing anything such as land art and there was no real inspiration from his surroundings to do so. This changed when he made Lancaster his home. With an unlimited supply of resources and inspiration from the land around him Richard soon became interested in art this was helped by reading books by Andy Goldsworthy - this is still a big influence today on how Richard took up land art.

When talking about decay in nature Richard said: "Decay is a big part of nature. It is just a point in the whole cycle of life. Decaying matter becomes nutrients for the next new growth, before its death eventually comes around for the next round in life.

If I was to offer up some symbolism for this sculpture then I would say that the mud canvas is the nutrient rich food for all the new life and what the oak tree feeds on to grow and flourish. The leaves fall and rot onto the woodland floor and all their stages are present across the slab. The whole cycle of life is here."

Talking to Richard gave me a real insight into how he is inspired by what is around him and spending a whole day talking and watching him produce the piece below.

I am hoping to spend some time with Richard again over the coming weeks to help produce Land Art with Rocks and Stone close to where he lives.

MIDDLE WOOD ECOLOGICAL TRUST

Middlewood Trust runs a study centre in North Lancashire, UK. It was established to promote environmental courses that would address the growing concern about long term damage to the environment.

The beautiful surroundings at Middlewood Trust act as an ideal place for creative art. The use of natural materials on the site is encouraged. We welcome artists who would like to be creative and explore this exciting environment.

Ecological buildings, low impact dwellings, alternative energy systems, and woodland crafts provide the basis for human and environmentally friendly living systems which form the main core of the courses. The residents and Middlewood Trust use these resources as a focus for sustainable development and through education help to create a future with a future. Permaculture principles and ethics act as the background for this project.

Middlewood Trust is located at Backsbottom Farm, a beautiful valley following the River Roeburn. It is a small organic hill farm, with species rich meadows, moorland, and an extensive area of native woodland and is privately owned by Dr. Rod Everett who founded this charity.

This is where I will hopefully be visiting this coming Saturday with an artist highlighted earlier in the blog "Richard Shilling". I recently had a chat with Richard about what will be happening on Saturday and he mentioned that we could possibly be doing something at Lancaster University. This is ironic as a close friend of mine (Director of Estates at Lancaster University) was telling me that he had allowed a land artist to carry out work in and around the campus - little did I know that it would be Richard!!

I am crossing my fingers that the weather this weekend will be kinder to us than it has been of late! Otherwise I could be in for a very wet day or even worse we may have to cancel.

I am really looking forward to meeting Richard and getting to know him and his art in more detail and hopefully get inspiration to start creating something myself.

STUDIO WEAVE

Another great link from Danny...

The longest bench in Britain was opened to the the public in Littlehampton, West Sussex on the 30th July 2010. The bench seats over 300 people along Littlehampton’s promenade, overlooking the town’s award-winning Blue Flag beach.

This project began as an idea to create a very long bench down the spine of the promenade at Littlehampton, potentially the longest bench in the UK or perhaps eventually the world. The structure sinuously travels along the promenade, meandering around lampposts, bending behind bins, and ducking down into the ground to allow access between the beach and the Green.

Like a seaside boardwalk the Longest Bench rests gently on its habitat and adapts to its surroundings while like a charm bracelet it connects and defines the promenade as a whole, underlining it as a collection of special places that can be added to throughout its lifetime.

Littlehampton, West Sussex is a town on the South Coast at the mouth of the River Arun. The promenade runs from the harbour westwards towards Worthing and beyond. The site follows a redbrick wall which accompanies the promenade for over half a kilometre, terminating at the East Beach Cafe.

The Longest Bench is made from thousands of hardwood bars reclaimed from sources including old seaside groynes (including Littlehampton’s!) and rescued from landfill. This simple component is arrayed to accommodate the complex shapes called for by the form of the wall and the activities which take place along it. The variety of reclaimed timbers are interspersed with splashes of bright colour wherever the bench wriggles, bends or dips.

To inspire and develop the Longest Bench, we worked with Connaught Junior School. The children showed us how they use the promenade, what they think of it, and what it means to them, giving us insights into the site we would never otherwise have. Two important incidents along the length of the site are the two shelters. The children told us they felt these were dirty and unsafe. They were dividing rather than connecting the green and the beach.

The old shelters have been replaced with new Shelter Charms, each made of a strip which forms a simple opening by looping around once. The bronze-finished twisted monocoque forms reach out to both sides, making no front or back. The bench stretches as it approaches a loop and then inside goes a bit haywire, bouncing of the walls and ceiling creating seats and openings. The loop contains the haywire stretch of bench and frames the views each way. These two shelters, along with the East Beach Cafe, form the initial charms. The Longest Bench unfolds a series of individual playful spaces and like a charm bracelet, we begin with a couple of charms and more can be added as birthday presents later.

The Longest Bench was granted CABE’s “Sea Change” funding, a capital grants programme for cultural and creative regeneration in seaside resorts. Through CABE’s Sea Change programme and a private donation from Gordon Roddick as a tribute to his late wife Anita (founder of the Body Shop which is based in the town), Littlehampton now has a very very long bench, the longest in Britain! The bench is also engraved with hundreds of personal messages from supporters which has helped it stretch a little bit further!